So it’s time for Part Two of BitTorrent’s interview with legendary filmmaker Jack Hill, director of such gems as Coffy, Switchblade Sisters, The Swinging Cheerleaders, Spider Baby, Foxy Brown, Pit Stop, and Chamber Of Fear to name but a few. We left off just before we got into the details of Mr. Hill’s collaboration with Blaxploitation icon, Pam (watch her pull a gun out of her afro) Grier.

Here goes it:

BT: Pam Grier is an actor you had an opportunity to make a lot of movies with. Of course there’s Coffy and Foxy Brown.

JH: That’s interesting. I just this morning saw that there’s a Foxy Brown lipstick.

BT: It’s iconic! Definitely.

JH: (Laughs.) I guess so. Well, Pam… I just recognized. The first time I ever saw her I cast her in a film called The Big Tall House which was an ensemble of girls. And she just walked in like a lot of other girls for me to look at and I was just immediately struck by her presence and authority. Even though she had virtually no experience at all, I felt she could do it. And after that I got to know her personality and I wrote parts in other scripts particularly for her, emphasizing her strengths and avoiding her weaknesses, such as they were. And it all came out very well.

BT: At the time, did it seem unique to have a protagonist that was both African American and a woman? And a strong woman character at that?

JH: Well, that’s what Pam’s personality was — at least her film personality as I wrote it. When you know an actor you want to write something for them, and that’s kind of the fantasy you get in your mind and you do it. In the case of Coffy, which was her big hit that really launched her as a star, that film was an assignment from Larry Gordon, who was head of production at AIP at the time and he wanted to do a “black woman revenge movie,” and for me it was a chance to do something with Pam. They weren’t sure they really wanted Pam. There were other actresses they were thinking of, but I just insisted she was the only one who could do this. And it worked out very well, as we know.

BT: You still see some instances of strong female characters today, like The Brave One, for example. And in Quentin Tarantino’s work, which is definitely influenced by your films. Which leads to another question, what are your thoughts on Grindhouse? He certainly pays homage to the types of movies that you made in the Seventies.

JH: That was his intent.

BT: (Laughs.)

JH: That was their intent, to do that. I don’t think it came off very well because the audience didn’t — for the most part — just didn’t quite get it. You know, I think the appeal of the films was for too narrow of an audience. Film buffs who appreciate exploitation movies, it’s not a real wide audience. But for what they attempted to do, they did it really wonderfully. I thought it was just terrific.

BT: Right. And they definitely went for the action and language, the beats of the dialog. In Foxy Brown, Coffy, Switchblade Sisters, your language is amazing, as well as the energy of the action sequences. Was that a particularly creative time for you? Or was it kind of in the air? This funky Seventies sensibility?

JH: I don’t know. I don’t know. The answer to your question is, I don’t know. I just did what I felt was right. Going back to the Warner Bros movies of the Forties, if you see pictures like that, you’ll see the style.

BT: Yeah.

JH: Take a look at White Heat and those kinds of movies. Basically, you try and say as much as possible with as little dialog as possible. And in contrast to Quentin — he likes long speeches, which are great and fascinating speeches. Just couldn’t write like that myself. I like to really condense dialog, and it’s just a different way of doing it. See, I was always a big student of Strindberg, and was a big fan of his drama at that time. He said, “People use language to conceal their thoughts.” And I always tried to keep that in mind.

BT: Is copying a form of flattery for you? Like with Grindhouse, for example?

JH: Well, it’s kind of gratifying, considering that at the time the movies were big hits but nobody knew who I was. At that time, directors didn’t quite get the credit. How can I put it… like Jonathan Demme, he did an exploitation film and he got good reviews on it. The picture didn’t do very well, but he got good reviews so he was able to attract attention for himself that way and get into mainstream films. But my films were big hits, but nobody knew who I was. (Laughs.) I guess that’s all I can tell you.

BT: Right.

JH: In other words, I didn’t really get the credit for making a hit movie because I didn’t get good reviews. The reviewers were kind of outraged by my films. Let me put it that way. In the kind of reviews I got, they were so outraged by the movie – which of course encouraged more people to go see the film. So in a sense, the reviews were what they call “Money Reviews, ” not “Prestige Reviews.” So basically I just went from one assignment to another. Another thing too, with Coffy and Foxy Brown, you get identified making what they called, “Black Films.” They didn’t use the term Blaxploitation then. And I talked to other producers and said I made Coffy. “Ah, that was a black picture, that doesn’t count.” You know, that was their attitude towards it from an artistic point of view. Black film, doesn’t count. There was a lot of racism.

BT: What led you to walk away from movies for awhile?

JH: Well, the last film I had made at that particular period, Switchblade Sisters — although in screenings audiences loved it, the campaign was such that it didn’t seem to draw people in. So if you don’t get an audience on opening day, you don’t get a lot of word of mouth. And I didn’t want to do those kinds of films anymore, but I was so stereotyped as a director. By making that kind of movie, I basically couldn’t get any attention from mainstream films. And I got in spirituality at that time, and yoga. That really changed my life and became much more important to me, so I kind of got out of it for awhile. Although I did continue doing writing assignments, working on rewrites and things like that. My name was really totally unknown so I couldn’t get financing for the kind of films I wanted to do. It’s like, even today, now all of a sudden after all this time I’ve got… how can I put it, notoriety! I’m called notorious! To get financing for something I really want to do, which is a romantic comedy, for example, is not easy. But I’m working on it. We have one project right now that I’m just starting to get on the market, which is remakes of the four films I did with Boris Karloff.

BT: Cool.

JH: Remakes and updates, because the parts I directed with Boris was in Hollywood and I was supposed to go to Mexico to finish the films, but the producer didn’t tell me that the Mexican union would not allow that. So when I finished shooting with Boris he just disappeared. And I didn’t know for years later that the films had even been finished because he died of a heart attack, which was no wonder. So now I and a couple other very talented associates of mine are preparing for new versions of these scripts, hopefully with Sid Haig. It’s a packaged four films. You can look it up at www.jackhillpresents.com. And we have clips from the films. It might interest you to see that.

BT: Of course! What do you think of the horror films today? There are a lot of remakes, The Hills Have Eyes or Halloween…

JH: I don’t go to see any of them. I don’t like what they’re doing with horror films today. It’s too gruesome. I can’t think of any that really have the kind of longtime… well, I guess there are some series. Halloween, things like that. I don’t know. I have not seen any of them.

BT: What do you enjoy seeing today?

JH: What do I enjoy seeing today? I don’t know until I see it. The last one I saw was The Brave One.

BT: Oh?

JH: And I was just appalled. I thought it was just abhorrent. I don’t know why anybody would want to make a movie like that. But what can I say? Look, I’m the guy that did Coffy and Foxy Brown and I’m complaining!

BT: (Laughs.) Well, great. Thank you so much for your time. That’s most of the questions that I had.

JH: OK.

BT: It was a real pleasure talking with you. Thanks again.

JH: OK, no problem.

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